The Leninsky District Court of Penza fined local pensioner Nikolai Gutsenovich 100 thousand rubles because of reactions to posts in Odnoklassniki about the war. OVD-Info writes about this with reference to lawyer Stanislav Fomenko.”
Gutsenovich was found guilty of “discrediting” the army (Part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code). The prosecutor asked to impose a fine of 120 thousand rubles on the pensioner. The initiation of a criminal case against the Penza citizen became known in February.
According to the investigation, Gutsenovich put «classes» and other reactions to posts in Odnoklassniki about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, «after which the publications were posted on his page and were available for viewing to an indefinite circle of people.» In the posts themselves, the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine were characterized as «criminal, predatory.»
In addition, the investigation saw in the publications «statements containing allegations that the military personnel of the Russian Federation fired at Ukrainian citizens, about the rocket attack on residential buildings, including the city of Kiev, which resulted in the death of civilians.»
According to OVD-Info, at one of the meetings, Gutsenovich said that he did not have the goal of «discrediting» the army, he only «expressed his opinion in accordance with the article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. His case was submitted to the court for consideration on the merits in early May.
In March 2022, a Penza resident was prosecuted under an administrative article on “discrediting” the army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) — then he was fined 30,000 rubles because of a picket with a poster with a placard painted with a hand-crushed rocket and the words “The Fatherland is in danger, our tanks are on foreign soil.”